Ubi Re Vera
by Leviticus Wilkes
Summary: It was while Severus was hurtling through the interdimensional ether that he quietly thanked the higher powers that he had chosen to take his wand with him. A Harry Potter Marauders / Code Lyoko crossover. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Ubi re Vera**

**Duel of wands, duel of words**

**Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -Clarks law**

**A/N: Okay, for anyone who does not know what this story is going to be about, I really hope that you like it. This is just my third story, so if you do read it and like it, then just do what comes naturally.**

**So, let's begin. And for anyone who has studied Harry Potter lore, this may be a little familiar.**

**And all flames are appreciated. _Siriusly_, I want criticism so I can get better people!**

_Prologue: The following chapters stand as something as a mystery, even to myself. My scribe – Joanna – has been kind enough to allow me to bombard her with facts that could very well be considered insane, on the condition that the chapter structure is altered to reflect the approaching change. But then again, nearly everything written prior would write me off as certifiably insane, so it might not seem as strange in comparison. The perspective will also shift, as new characters are added and introduced. And I will again warn you that everything that will follow is true, however impossible._

_I should know. I hardly believe it now._

-chapter 18 prologue from Coded Warrior, the memoirs of Jeremy Belpois.

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><p>"<em>I'm sorry!"<em>

"_I'm not interested."_

"_I'm sorry!"_

"_Save your breath."_

Severus Snape's mind played like a broken record as he plodded back to the Slytherin dormitories. Though in all honesty, he probably didn't _deserve_ to enter the common room. His house prided itself on cunning and control, and calling your best – and only – friend a Mudblood certainly didn't qualify for either. Severus felt the uniquely crushing sorrow and shame that only ever came after someone when they _really_ messed up. Of all the possible things to say, why did it have to be _Mudblood_? And why did half the school have to see…

Severus stopped at an intersection in the corridor. Why did he have to say that, why, why, _WHY_? Severus kicked at the ground in frustration. "Why do you hate me?" a question that wasn't directed at anyone in particular rang with the quiet unhappiness of one boy, trapped in his own fault. It was also answered, surprisingly enough, by a large, mostly rotten tomato that connected with Severus's head with spellcasting accuracy.

"Gah! What the - why did you do that?" Severus seemed to yell at the castle. Of course, to anyone in the know, they would be aware that the only resident of Hogwarts castle that owned an invisibility cloak also owned a severe personal grudge against Snape.

"Well, isn't that the question that answers itself?" The voice had the strong, noble cadence that destroyed all doubt of its owner. "Show yourself, Black." Severus pulled out his wand, swinging it from side to side. Sirius Black remained hidden though, absolutely content to torment the Slytherin from under his best friend's invisibility cloak.

"Well, if you must know, it's because you called Evans a Mudblood in front of the entire school. You really _are_ worthy of being in Slytherin, shunting your best friend aside to move up the junior Death Eater ranks."

"It was an _accident_." Severus waved his wand, more than a few sparks coming out the end. "And your one to talk about housely actions when you're the Gryffindor hiding under an invisibility cloak."

That got Sirius's goat.

The Gryffindor swept the cloak off of his shoulders and broke into a run. Severus lifted his wand, but only managed to get off one spell before Sirius bodily tackled him. The pair kicked and punched one another before Severus finally got the upper hand. He slammed Sirius into a wall, thanking the fact that his father had once been in the state of mind (sober) to force his son to learn some basic army martial arts. Against an armed wizard, they were slightly less than useless, but Sirius hadn't the thought to draw his own wand. Severus was ready to curse Sirius (his own wand was already pressed into his neck for it) when inspiration struck him.

"Listen here, Black. If you go along and spread those sodding lies that I insulted Lily on accident, I will rip your head off and feed it to the giant squid. Now then, I want you to take a message to Potter. Tell him to meet me up on the astronomy tower at midnight. We duel, no contact, with the werewolf as our referee." Severus pressed his wand deeper into Sirius's neck. Sirius replied with the same smoothness that he had always shown. "Who's your second?"

"Regulus Black." Severus took a special pride in how Sirius's face contorted in rage. "Bas…" Severus cut off the reply, digging his wand into Sirius's throat. "Do you accept?"

"Yes." Sirius forced Severus's arms off him, took one look at him with disgust, then turned and ran for the invisibility cloak and Gryffindor tower. Severus contemplated sending a hex after Black, but decided against it. He still needed a messenger. And a partner.

* * *

><p>"WHAT?"<p>

"So will you do it, Reg?"

"NO! WHAT, HOW CAN YOU EVEN _ASK_ THAT?"

"Please?"

"NO!"

"Pretty please?"

"Pretty no. Out!"

"Uh, am I walking in on something?" Severus looked at the strange sight in front of him. On one side of the room was Regulus Black, clutching a very threatening pillow. On the other side was Jessica Crabbe, clutching what looked suspiciously like a blue rectangle.

"I told you, _no_. Get out of the boys dorm, now!" He finally threw the pillow, through Jessica banished it back at him, then turned and, nose in the air, set out to track down her boyfriend Jacob Goyle. Severus resisted raising an eyebrow, though Regulus took that as a cue to throw the pillow at him. "What d'you want, Sev? A relaxing massage? A third arm? A person you haven't goaded in to being your personal servant on the condition that you'd help them make their classes?" Regulus and Severus really didn't have much of a friendship as an alliance; Severus would do Regulus's potions, Regulus would be his eyes and ears in the common room.

"A dueling partner." Severus went on to detail the encounter with Sirius, though left out the part where he had specifically selected James Potter for the duel. Regulus wasn't an idiot, and would easily realize that if he would be a second in a duel against the Gryffindor golden boy, then his faithful lapdog wouldn't be too far behind. Regulus thought this over, and then nodded. "I'm in. But you'll need something to help fight the Gryffindors. We'll need something that will catch them by surprise, something that they can't expect."

The pair stopped talking, and entered deep thought, the kind of trance that dorm mates could recognize as 'Slytherin think'. After a prolonged session of thought, Regulus snapped his fingers. "Blasting runes. We learned them in ancient runes from Babbling earlier on in the week, so maybe we could put them into practice." Regulus pulled out a fountain pen and started in on a rune matrix that would act as a redactor curse. Severus started to pull out some of his clothes, a collection of regular cloaks and some crude Muggle attire. One of these was a smaller than usual gray tee-shirt, tight and perfect for dueling.

As Regulus put the finishing touches on his runes, Severus held out an arm, which Regulus began to dutifully cover in a small matrix of charms. "We'll need an activation phrase, something that you can say that will start the reaction, but that no one will think to say. Any ideas?" Regulus glanced at Severus expectantly. Severus thought over something that Potter wasn't likely to say. He first thought of some gibberish, but discarded it as he wouldn't remember it. Mudblood came up, but He discarded that too. Finally, he remembered back to one day when Lily had invited him over to her house to watch a Muggle movie, and hit upon the perfect idea.

"You in pieces."

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><p>Severus listened as James Potter took the stairs leading up to the Astronomy tower two at a time, Remus, Sirius and Peter on his tail. Finally muttering the counter-incantation for the super sensory charm he had cast, he nodded silently to Regulus, and waited for the Marauders to reach the top of the tower. Potter cleared it first, and was fast followed by Lupin, Black, and Pettigrew. Regulus glared at his older brother, who looked back with just a twinge of fear in his eyes. Lupin spoke first.<p>

"You _do_ know how many rules the six of us are breaking, right?" With nods from all concerned, Lupin continued. "Whatever happens up here tonight, did not happen tomorrow morning. The duel stops when one or both of the fighters are knocked out or any bones are broken, and their second has fallen as well. There will be no unforgivable cast, no curses cast with the intent to damage the castle, no curses to be cast with intent to permanently maim, and no physical contact." The werewolf produced a hand, which promptly ignited with blue flames. "Are both contestants ready?"

"We're ready," Severus declared. Regulus nodded in agreement.

"We are good to go, and better then you are, Snivellus," James said. Remus looked from one to the other, looking, from his posture, as one would when they were deciding when to cross the street and not someone who was ready to initiate a duel. He held out the flaming hand, and then upended it. The fire hit the ground, and shot in a straight line from one side to the other. "Begin!"

"_Stupify_!" James's first curse ricocheted off of Severus's shield charm. Severus retaliated in kind, and Potter jump to the side. "_Inpedimenta_!" Severus dodged this time, but Regulus caught itin the chest. As his partner hit the ground, Severus switched tactics. "_Sectum Sempra_!"

James twisted on his heel, the magical cut missing his face by inches. Severus swung his wand up, and then brought it down. James waved his wand horizontally. "_Sectum Sempra_!" The two spells connected between them, sparks flying. The pair froze, than reacted identically. "_Sectum Sempra!_" The spells collided again, sparks raining onto the parapet. "_Sectum Sempra, Sectum Sempra, Sectum Sempra, Sectum Sempra!"_

Each time the spells were cast, sparks flew from the connection. Severus ducked one more, and then raised his wand, deciding to end the duel. "_Langlock_!"

James seized his throat, the spell locking his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Sirius cried out. "That not fair, you stinking Slytherin!"

"We don't play fair," Severus retorted. "_Muffilato_!" James slapped his ears, his hearing now filled with a loud, obscuring buzz. 'And to finish it off,' Severus jabbed his wand at James. "_Accio Potter's glasses_!"

Severus snatched the bifocals out of the air, a catch that would probably have landed him a spot on the Slytherin quidditch team if he could have flown at all. "What do you have to say about that Potter?" Severus sneered at his enemy as of five years, nearly helpless under his prowess.

James looked up defiantly. "Just one thing. _Nox_!"

The moon and stars winked out.

Severus started, then ignited his wand. The validity of this strategy was set into question when a red stunner hurtled past at fifty meters an hour, brushing past his greasy hair. Severus froze, extinguishing his wand in surprise. Another spell went past, but lower and farther right. The stupid Gryffindors were looking for him, but they had no idea that he had never moved.

Severus crouched, and waited for the Gryffindors to start talking. The braggarts wouldn't resist badmouthing him and Regulus, whether or not it would tell him exactly where they were. He wasn't disappointed.

"Have enough of it, Snivellus?" Potter fired off. "You want to give up now, and walk away with all twenty of your appendages?"

"Don't you mean twenty-one Prongs?"

"No, Padfoot, I do not, in fact." Severus rolled his eyes. James continued, "Besides, isn't there some rule about the silent duelist? Something about unresponsiveness being a declaration of withdrawal? Moony?"

Remus spent a few moments thinking this over, and nodded in agreement. He then promptly remembered that, while he could see perfectly fine in the near blackness, he was alone in that fact. "Yeah, this is. Snape, you'll need to reply, otherwise you forfeit the match."

Severus glared at the slightly blacker patch of shadow that the werewolf occupied, grinding his teeth. Of course Potter would pull something on him like this. He would always look for a way out without risking his own neck. A scheming Gryffindor, what next? A smart Hufflepuff? A Ravenclaw that _wasn't_?

But the jig was up. Either lose surprise or lose the match. If only there was a third choice, one he would beg, borrow and steal for. He would take anything over losing to this idiotic Gryffindor.

Be careful what you wish for, Snape.

"What are you guys doing up here?"

This voice came from the sweet, demure voice of one Lily Evans. And the moment that she said it, Severus knew that everyone on the tower was royally screwed.

"Oh, eh, hey Evans, how's that midnight stroll going?" James was doing his best to cover him and his friends. But with Lily on the war path, he didn't have a chance.

"Really well, until I heard the four of you dueling up here." Okay, so Lily thought that he and Regulus weren't there. He could use that to his advantage. Severus started edging his way to the stairwell.

"Come on, Evans, is there really a need to punish the six of us? It's all in good fun."

"All in good fun, huh? Okay then, I'm going to count to ten, and then I'm going to dispel this darkness charm. Then we're going to see what's so fun." Lily's voice was starting to rise, and Severus knew that he needed to be anywhere but the astronomy tower when she undid the charm. Potter…didn't get the message.

"Come on, Evans, we're only having fun."

"One."

"Evans, please."

"Two, toerag."

"Prongs, I think that we need to go."

"Three."

"Evans, come on. If this is about Snivellus, you could just take it out on a pillow or something."

"Six."

"Hey, what happened to four and five?"

"Seven."

"Now is not the time, Wormtail."

"Eight."

"Come on, Evans, just let us leave in peace." Severus tensed, and then breathed a sigh of relief. That hadn't triggered his blasting array, but had come close.

He shouldn't have jinxed it like that.

"Oh, I'll LEAVE YOU IN PIECES!"

Severus felt his arm heat up. The array was going off! "Look out!" was all he could say before the curse shot out of his hand. The white hex flew through the air, and then connected with something that exploded spectacularly.

The light returned with a flash, and Severus was staring at Lily Evans, so completely enraged that he was sure that he would carry this image with him to the grave. That time that didn't seem so far off, seeing as he had hit her with his blasting hex. Though oddly, she didn't seem blasted, just wind-blow…

"Severus Marilyn Snape," she began dangerously. Severus flinched, and tried to turn and run. Somehow though, he found himself mesmerized by Lily, though he couldn't place why. Maybe it was because he could see straight through her.

Lily Evans had become transparent, and hadn't even noticed.

"I cannot believe you, Severus. After everything you did today, everything that happened, you have the gall to come up here and start a duel. But do you know what I want to know? Why you insist on making yourself like this! Well?" Lily glared at Severus, ready to continue her tirade, when James spoke up.

"Uh, Evans? Lily, look at your hand." James pointed at Lily's right hand, and she dutifully looked at it, and then through it. Then she screamed.

"!"

James threw himself at Lily, Sirius on his heels. But Severus was the first to catch her, the air heating up around them. James grabbed Lily from around her waist, Sirius getting her foot, twisting the four. Remus seized Severus's shoulder, and held on. Blue lightning encompassed the five, the strange transparency virus swallowing them up. As Severus faded out, he realized something. The spell seemed to only affect Lily and anyone in direct physical contact with her. So why didn't he just let go?

_Because I'm an idiot._

And these were Severus's last thoughts on the Earth.

* * *

><p>Odd Della Robbia was enjoying his morning. Why, you may ask? Because his best friend and roommate Ulrich had told him that he wasn't hungry, and handed him his entire breakfast. This, for Odd, meant that he was dead, dreaming, or about to have one of the best days of his life. But what was the best day of one's life when good food was absent?<p>

"So, Ulrich my pal, where do you think our Princess and Einstein are this fine morning?" Odd said in between forkfuls.

"I think that they're still in bed, Odd. You know, like normal people that don't wake up at six in the morning on Sundays just to get breakfast." Ulrich rarely enjoyed having Odd as a roommate (it was rather like having a dog that could speak, no offense to Odd's dog Kiwi), but at least he was a reliable alarm clock. The problem with that was that when he didn't need to wake up, he couldn't hit the snooze button. This often led people to wonder how the pair could be such good friends, but the truthful answer would probably lead to World War Three.

Both he and Odd, along with Aelita Stones (alias Schaffer, also alias Hopper), Jeremy Belpois, Yumi Ishiyama, Elizabeth Sissi Delmas and William Dunbar had a secret. One day, Jeremy had discovered a supercomputer buried underneath the nearby Renault factory. In that computer had been both a world, dubbed Lyoko, and a person, Aelita. Jeremy and the rest of the gang, sans William, had spent nearly a year trying to get Aelita out of the computer and into the real world, continuously fighting a computer program, Xana. But that story was one for another day, when the whole debacle was long past them.

But speaking of people that had been stuck in computers, two were walking in right now. Aelita and William were deep in conversation about DJ techniques, with the former telling the latter how to best deal with disk slippage.

"Good morning, princess." Odd waved Aelita over to their table over enthusiastically. William rolled his eyes, but Aelita plopped down on a dime. "Good morning Odd, how'd you sleep?"

"Like a truck." Ulrich answered for his roommate. "You would think that someone this small wouldn't make that big of a noise." Odd cuffed his friend over the head, Aelita giggling and William trying not to chuckle.

"I'm not small, I'm – "

"Scrawny." Ulrich was enjoying the payback, to say the least.

"No, I'm-"

"Jeremy," William perked up. Odd and Ulrich stopped fighting, as the schools resident genius was standing right behind them with a tray of his breakfast, staring straight at Aelita. Odd held up three fingers, then two, then one. On zero, Aelita gave a little "Hmph," and stood and took her tray to a different table. Jeremy took her place.

"Hey Einstein, how's that love potion going?" William hit Jeremy on the shoulder, but the blond didn't register it. This sort of thing had been happening with him and Aelita for about a month now, and none of the group could fathom why it was happening. They all had their theories, but the only thing that they did now was that Aelita and Jeremy had been almost a pair one day, and wouldn't speak with each other the next. Or rather, Jeremy couldn't speak to Aelita and Aelita would ignore Jeremy whenever he entered the room. Trouble in paradise, as Odd would put it.

"So, William, how's the long distance relationship thing going?" Odd tried to bring the conversation away from Jeremy, something Ulrich was thankful for. William gave a shrug, and struck up a conversation with Odd about girls. Ulrich tuned out the conversation, and turned his thoughts to Yumi. Yumi may have not fit the regular standards of what a girlfriend should have fit, but Ulrich was proud (and more than a little relieved) to call her his girlfriend. She was a great person, sweet and beautiful, once you got to know her.

Speaking of which, Yumi wouldn't be too far off. She lived in the city, and drove to school with her little brother Hiroki. He was…energetic, to put it mildly.

William put down his fork. "Well, I think that showing women the super computer is a bit of a bad idea." Ulrich jerked in his seat, brought back to the present conversation. William was glaring at Odd, who looked sheepish. "Didn't you make a deal not to tell anyone? And you not only brought _one_ girl, but _two_." William was starting look angry, and Ulrich wanted to know when the conversation had turned to Lyoko.

"Come on William, you know that girls like technology. I was-"

"Trying to get them possessed by Xana?" William was full on sneering at Odd now. "You would have let Xana take a couple people hostage just to get a girl, would you?" Jeremy looked ready to intervene on Odd's behalf, but something stopped him. Ulrich had opened his mouth, but was frozen as well, the hairs on the back of his neck raising forebodingly. Something was coming, and _fast_.

The air was suddenly filled with a motionless, noiseless explosion of light. The four boys sat, stilled by the sudden influx of light. Then the pain came.

Ulrich snapped his hands over his ears, the pain doubling fast. The world began to spin, and Ulrich nearly fell, even though he was sitting. "Jeremy, what happening?" The light intensified, and Ulrich felt a building agony behind his eyes.

"I don't know, something must be…."

The light peaked, and then the Lyoko Warriors passed out.

* * *

><p>And in the bowels of a Renault factory, a tower rose with a metallic hiss.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: The first chapter of my second story is done. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MY SECOND STORY IS DONE! WOOHOO. This is great, I can't believe I 'm starting this.**

**Well, to my small minority of fans carrying over from my last story, and anyone else that is going to love this, I'll see you next week.**

**Yeah.**

**B/N: *waves* Hey! Sorry for finishing this late (thanks, real life! And I _suck_). I hope you like the story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Second beginning**

**A/N: Well, I think that before I start on this chapter, I should clear some things up, before they become an issue with new readers.**

**I write in such a manner that each chapter features characters from the opposite canon. For this chapter, we have it being Jeremy-centric, the next will be for the wizards, then back to warriors, and so on and so forth.**

**I release every week, usually on Sunday. I may, on rare occasion, end up updating late, in which case, you have permission to flame me for being lazy. Otherwise, things go like clockwork.**

**I will have an out of canon pairing, but no spoilers for now.**

**And on with the show.**

* * *

><p>It was a dark and stormy night when good faced evil, and a man met his darkest essence.<p>

This, however, did not describe what was happening currently, as it was neither dark nor stormy outside of Kadic academy, or inside Jeremy's head, where he was dreaming.

And Jeremy Belpois was having a most interesting dream.

In the dream, he was hanging on to a flying manta, trapped in the center of a storm, circling past the Hermitage in ever shrinking spirals. Finally, the manta lowered itself to a window, and Jeremy flopped off it. Franz Hopper was sitting in the arm chair in the center of the living room, a Grimm propped out on his lap, his gaze on the newcomer.

"You saved my daughter, but I need you to fight again. Something has come."

Jeremy stared at Hopper, and tried to speak. His voice caught in his throat. Jeremy tried again, and the world began to dissolve.

Jeremy opened his eyes and blinked against the glare of the harsh light overhead, the school nurse leaning over him. "Nice to see that you're back among the waking world mister Belpois. You and your friends had us worrying for a while." The nurse stood up and walked through a set of curtains that obstructed Jeremy's view of his friends. "But with you awake, the rest should come around soon," she added through the curtains.

Jeremy labored to lever his body upright from the medical bed. He, Aelita and the rest seemed to be in the school infirmary. It would make sense that the staff would take them to there, with them five all passing out simultaneously. But how would they react when Jeremy told them that he had to leave. That light could only have been from a return to the past, and those could only happen if the super computer was online. But he and the Lyoko warriors had shut it down six months ago…

"Can I have my laptop, nurse?" Jeremy tried to keep his voice level, but if what he had seen was the same as what he thought, then everything was going to snowball in a matter of hours. And if that happened, he and his friends would be caught up in the middle of the old _saving the world _business again. Why him?

"I don't see why not. But no messages out of this room, if you would please. And don't leave that bed." The nurse left, and Jeremy tried desperately to not leap up from his cot and check on his friends. He could see anything outside of the curtains, and his body was too stiff to really try and move them. The stiffness was a mystery to. He, Yumi and everyone else had been though over one hundred returns, once several times in a day, but it had never left stiffness.

And another thing; while returning to the past always produced a bright white light, they didn't produce any sensation of pain. But then again, the light only seemed to sweep over them and take them back. This one had left them where they were, frozen in place. Why would that happen?

Jeremy lifted an arm, but let it fall back onto the mattress. He was stiff _and_ exhausted; go figure. That, right there, had not been a normal return to the past, regardless of the zonked out definition of normal that he and his friends had adopted once they found and started fighting Xana.

Jeremy was interrupted from his musings when the door banged open. "Help, please someone help!" A little boy tore through the curtains, and Jeremy was less then surprised to be looking at Yumi's little brother, Hiroki Ishiyama. "Uh, what seems to be the problem?" There was a question that was less then useless, because Jeremy already had a fairly good idea what had happened to Yumi, and it wasn't good.

"She was driving me to the academy, and we pulled up and all of the sudden she had this weird seizure and passed out! Please, you need to come with me and help her." Hiroki grabbed Jeremy by the arm, but all he succeeded in doing was to pull Jeremy onto the floor. Jeremy's legs were, it seemed, asleep.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on," Hiroki chanted as Jeremy came unsteadily to his feet. He was oddly relieved to see he was still wearing his day clothes (blue turtle neck and brown kakis), and not a medical gown that nurses seemed so fond of. Jeremy stepped out of his sectioned off portion of the infirmary, walking into a small corridor of curtains. Jeremy peeked into one at random, and was rewarded with the sight of Odd, fully unconscious and asleep. Jeremy backed out, and was tempted to look in another, but stopped when he realized that he might look in on Aelita.

Aelita… Why, why did he have to be such an idiot? Why did he have to have made that mistake? He shouldn't have even thought of it in the first place, they were both only kids. She shouldn't have agreed to it, and now they were over. _They_ were dead, and there was nothing that they could do about it. Nothing that he could have done to fix it, nothing that a thousand returns to the past would be able to do.

Jeremy opened the door to the infirmary… and was greeted with the sight of one very unhappy nurse. "Mister Belpois, what did I say? I told you to not leave that bed. And now you shouldn't need to." She shoved the laptop into Jeremy's hands, and Hiroki intervened.

"Please help, my sisters unconscious out in the drive, and I can't carry her on my-"

"WHAT!" shrieked the nurse. "Where out in the drive. You'll need me to take her in- and you won't leave this room," she added at Jeremy, a glint in her eyes. "Now where is she?" the nurse continued with Hiroki in a much lighter tone of voice. Hiroki led her out of the room, and Jeremy was left alone in a room full of catatonic friends.

* * *

><p>Jeremy sat back down, and opened his laptop. The computer asked for the standard password, something that changed from day to day to keep people from hacking into it. Jeremy had to mentally rewind to remember the password, and opened it with some trepidation. If he saw what was probably there, then he could kiss any attempt at a normal life good bye until they shut down the supercomputer for good. Jeremy opened through a selection of news pages. "…Stocks rose in anticipation of widespread …", "…the storm, the largest in India's history…", "… we seem to be having some technical difficulties due to the electrical…", and normal websites, before finally finding the files he was looking for.<p>

Several screens into the computer, and Jeremy had to admit defeat. Somehow, the supercomputer was online, and something seemed to inhabit it. Jeremy groaned into his palm, tired beyond his years. It had been a blast really. He and the Lyoko warriors had never fully considered that at any moment they could possible die. Sure, they had come close at times, and once Yumi had really died, but at the end of the day, everyone walked clean. Then Franz Hopper had sacrificed himself to power the multi-agent program that had killed Xana, and then they were faced with something that they couldn't simply repair with a return to the past.

And now they would have to risk their lives again, and again, and again…

Jeremy opened though a collection of pages, looking for what was happening on Lyoko exactly, when he opened a map screen, and then breezed over it, and stopped. Jeremy reopened the last few screens, and looked back at the map of Lyoko. Sitting in the center of the mountain sector, was a large transportation tower, connected to the forest sector. And just three kilometers from it, a small collection of three green squares. Jeremy blinked and brushed off his glasses to make sure that he wasn't imagining this. Three green squares meant three people.

Three living people on Lyoko. This was not good.

Jeremy shut down his computer and placed it onto his bed, his mind running a mile-a-minute. If there were people on Lyoko, actual people that had restarted the supercomputer, then that meant that it was full possible that the return to the past was just a fluke, and that Xana wasn't really back. If Jeremy could just get to the factory and contact them and resolve the situation, then there really was no reason to be worried.

Jeremy opened the door to the infirmary tentatively. The hall outside was mostly empty, but two people were coming down toward the room. Jeremy nearly ducked back in, but came out fully when he recognized Sissi and her boyfriend, David.

"Jeremy, what happened? Emily and Tamiya said that you and the others were eating in the cafeteria and you all fainted." Sissi had been a good friend for the last few months, ever since they had reintroduced her to the super computer. Since then, they had been treating her well, and she was been helping them out with her father, the school's principal, who had suddenly taken a rather strong interest in Odd, or more specifically, the idea that Odd had a dog on campus, and that was against the rules.

"I need to get down to the… uh… computer lab, and fix some glitches in there. Can you stay here and keep the others company?" Jeremy gulped silently. While he could have out right told Sissi that he needed to get to the factory and that what had happened had something to do with Lyoko, David didn't need to know about Lyoko and the supercomputer. He would have to speak elliptically and hope that Sissi got the idea.

"Oh, the computers are on the fritz. Well, ere, you best get to it." Sissi seemed to understand, and Jeremy didn't waste any time.

Outside, Jeremy spotted Miss Hertz and Jim Morales, the school custodian, carrying a stretcher between them, Hiroki on the side of them. Jeremy hoped that whatever had happened to Odd, Ulrich and the others wasn't permanent. It wasn't in his case, but was probably the exception that proved the rule.

The forest manhole cover was still unlocked for entry. Jeremy took an edge and gave and experimental tug. Man, this thing was heavy! Jeremy locked his fingers on the rim, and put his back into it. The manhole was soon on the side, and Jeremy was down in the pipes. It had been at Yumi's insistence that they leave a skateboard and a scooter down to let them get back was fast as possible to the factory if anything happened.

The pipes ran for miles underneath the city. Odd had thought that you could have taken them instead of driving and get anywhere you needed to much faster. Jeremy didn't really think this was the case, but hey! who could say no. A rug ladder loomed ahead, the pipe draining into the industrial river.

Hand over hand, Jeremy ascended the ladder, and almost fully opened the cover when, with a shriek that sounded eerily human, it snapped shut. A tight grip was all that kept Jeremy from crashing back down onto his scooter. Jeremy grabbed the bottom of the cover, and slammed it open. The bridge before Jeremy was deserted, but when Jeremy turned, he spotted a young girl in a green skirt sprinting full speed away from the old Renault factory. Jeremy opened his mouth to call to her, but she turned a corner and vanished from his line of sight.

Jeremy moved as quickly as he could into the factory. The old Renault factory that had once been a major industrial center of the city, as now abandoned. Jeremy passed old machinery and conveyor belts, rapidly returning to the large elevator. Jeremy was fast enough to input the descent code from memory, even though it was ten digits long.

What followed was the most agonizing sixty seconds of Jeremy's life. Though he was praying to be wrong about what was almost assuredly not there, he really only had one choice; to know.

The blast doors slowly opened, Jeremy squeezing between the doors to get to the computer. Slipping into the ready seat, Jeremy experienced a slight note of Nostalgia at how the seat swung from in front of the door to the computer interface. Jeremy reached to open the screen… and froze.

'_Well, now. Here's the great Jeremy Belpois, about to turn the supercomputer back on and make his life hell all over. You know, you don't really know the people in the supercomputer, you don't even know if they're human. You could just go down into the computer chamber and shut the computer down and let the next batch of kiddies find it. No one knows that the supercomputers even powered up, you can lie well enough to let them think that it was never on.' _Said a darkened part of Jeremy's mind.

'_Shut up, you.' _Said the other, morally charged half. _'It would be condemnation. We can't do that.' _

'_Oh, but you can. You could just turn it off and lie. No one would ever need to know.'_

'_But we can't lie. We can't.'_

'_You lied to Aelita.'_

Jeremy's head snapped up. One way or the other, he was not going to mess this up like he did with Aelita. Jeremy opened the computer, and looked at his greatest fear. The computer emotionlessly showed the same three people, still virtualized in Lyoko, but now they had an even greater problem of being surrounded by several of Xana's old monsters. Jeremy went through his options. Several different programs had been damaged or deleted, but devirtualization was still intact. Sorely, communication wasn't. Jeremy opened a set of data pictures, and looked other the people. One seemed to be a youthful Gandalf, but in green. Another was dressed up like Van Helsing, cowboy hat and all. A third, the only girl in the group, was a knight in shining armor.

Jeremy examined their weapons, then opened a separate screen for devirutalizing them. He couldn't speak to them (the communication program was on of the damaged ones), so the return to reality would be a shock. Jeremy input the code for digital breakdown, and stood up to go down into the scanner room and greet them.

Down in the scanner room though, Jeremy could help but think that he was the receptor of some bad joke. Sure, they were unconscious, but why were they wearing bathrobes? Jeremy came to the nearest, a blond roughly one year his senior, and rolled him over. Gray-blue eyes stared back at him, and Jeremy head a distant shout.

_Stupefy!_

* * *

><p>Yumi slowly came to. Harsh white lights were staring down at her, but that wasn't what caught her attention. No, what caught her attention was the note card on her forehead. Yumi snatched it off, and read it over. It was a short note; <em>Factory. <em>

Yumi stiffly lifted herself up. Across the room, Odd and Ulrich were doing the same. Ulrich seemed to be having an easier time, he deep toned musculature easily handling the task of moving his equally developed body. Yumi quickly wondered if they were in the infirmary for the same reason she was. The white light had penetrated her car like she had been hurled into her own personal sun. But Hiroki hadn't seen it, and Yumi had desperately hoped that whatever it was, it wouldn't hurt her brother.

"Ulrich, what-?"

"Light. White light, caught us all off guard." Ulrich levered himself off his bed and pointed at the note in Yumi's hand. "Where's Jeremy? Did he leave you that note?" Yumi shook her head. "I don't recognize the writing, but I think it's from Sissi."

"Why's that?"

"She drew her face on it." Yumi let Ulrich read the note. Jeremy was already gone, obviously off to deal with the supercomputer. Odd was sleepy eyed, but intact. Behind some hanging curtains though, Aelita and William were still unconscious on their beds. Yumi walked over to the girl that was like her sister. Aelita was quietly snoozing, almost peaceful. William though, was making slight groaning noises, as though he was in pain. Yumi put her hand to his head, but didn't feel a fever. Whatever was happening to William, he was dreaming it.

"Come on, better sooner than later if the supercomputer is involved." Odd spoke up for the first time, quiet irony flavoring his voice. "Einstein's going to need us any time now to go fight Xana." Ulrich and Yumi shared a glance. If it came to that, then they would need to get back to sparring with each other.

"Let's go!"

Yumi, Ulrich and Odd's trip was slower. Both boys had opted to leave their skate boards in their rooms, and Yumi wasn't going to take hers if they weren't. This mostly left them to jump the various gaps in the sewers, something that twice resulted in Ulrich falling backward into the slowly moving water, but Odd and Yumi were quick to drag their disheveled and soaked friend onto higher ground.

Yumi, with Ulrich on her heals and Odd trailing behind them, was the first up onto the bridge. And subsequently, the first to see Jeremy, unconscious, slung over the shoulder of someone in a bathrobe.

'_Crap.'_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, Two down, twenty-eight to go. And as a question, how many people read these. If you do, sound off and leave a message.**

**Otherwise, good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Translation Code**

**A/N: It really is beautiful outside. The suns out, the birds are singing and the wind is at a nice cooling breeze. It's absolutely perfect.**

**I think I'll just write this one in doors.**

Remus hung on to Snape for dear life. The interdimensional winds howled like madness and blue lightning danced across the air. Remus though, did not see much of this, as his eyes were firmly shut. But there were a few things that he noticed.

First and foremost was the odd glow approximately six inches above Lily's head. Whatever was glowing seemed to be dragging them through the tunnel, evidenced by the way that it would twisted above her just before they would make a tight turn. It seemed that Lily was tied to it.

Other than that, Remus was also vaguely aware of a weight on his legs. He decided to chance a look down, but instead of the bulk of Wormtail, Remus gazed down upon the slightly haughty but still very fearful eyes of Regulus Black. Remus also got a full look at the yawning gape of eternity directly below, and decided that looking down was a _very _bad idea. So he decided to look up- and got the shock of his life.

Directly above – or maybe below, he really didn't have any sense of direction in here, werewolf or not -his group of friends, was an enormous, pulsating ocean of blue light. And they were headed straight for it.

Remus tightened his hold on Snape's waist, trying to channel his magic for a silent sticking charm (opening his mouth would probably end with him electing his dinner), but started far too late. Before the charm was complete, the six hit the surface of the ocean.

Remus nearly lost his grip, one arm actually detaching itself from Snape's side. His other hand tightened on Severus's cloak, and Remus, for a moment, wondered at the weird symbolism of it all. Then, with a jolt, Regulus fell off of Remus.

Remus swung his loose arm up and snagged a handful of Snape's robes. Regulus… He filed that down under "Repressed and waiting for processing", and was just about to wonder if anything else would happen when Sirius suddenly jerked. Remus looked around Severus, eyeing the dog marauder that was barely two feet from him. Sirius looked Remus right in eye… and with a final jerk, he and James fell into oblivion.

Remus gaped, trying, desperately to process this. No, no, this could not be happening. Two of the three people that had ever accepted him for what he was, that had befriended him even though he was a monster, could not have just fallen to the deaths. A sudden, reckless energy stole over Remus, and he looked below him, ready to hurl himself after his friends.

He never did.

The air (or whatever he, Lily and Snape were moving through) suddenly started to change. Remus looked back up, but only got a quick look at what seemed to be the surface of a vast, roiling sea, before the sensation of being plunged into freezing water overtook him. Not a second later, the cold water turned boiling. And then, with a hum, Remus suddenly realized that he was now on dry, normal, earthly land.

But why was the horizon tilted, oh say, sixty degrees?

This question, while never to be answered, was quickly found to be irrelevant, as something in Remus's vision clicked, everything came into a sharper focus, and he fell seven feet onto hard stone. _'Well, that couldn't have been worse.' _Remus stood back up, and turned to take in the environment.

He, Lily and Snape had landed in what looked like a flying mountain range. Several massive boulders were suspended around them, and a narrow path wove from north to south beneath them. A few bonsai trees were scattered here and there, but they were in the minority of scenery. Remus continued to take in the view, until he had turned full circle and was faced with Snape and Lily's backs and started. They were clad in the most ridiculous outfits!

Snape was standing, absent-mindedly clutching a blindingly white staff in one hand, in green and silver robes that, even though there wasn't a breeze, where billowing around him dramatically. Lily was crouching on the edge of the pathway, wearing a knight's set of shining armor, sans the helmet. A sword was sheathed on her back. Remus glanced down and saw he was wearing a similar costume, a black priest's frock with golden trim. A silver revolver was holstered in his belt.

"Potter, Black. Potter, Black. Where are you!" Lily shouted down to the ocean that rolled calming beneath them. Remus came to the edge, staring down to the water. Nothing stirred in the infinite reaches of the deep. "If you two don't come back here right now-."

"They're stuck down there Lily. They're not coming up." Snape turned back from the edge, and started pacing away from them. Then, with a complete lack of the famous Slytherin cunning, Snape burst out laughing!

"Severus Snape!" Lily whipped around and groped for her wand but came up empty handed. Snape continued to laugh and even started cheering. "Don't you see Lily, now with those toerags out of the way…" Snape stopped laughing. Remus was unsure if it was because Lily was looking absolutely murderous, because he probably had a similar look.

"Well, ere, you see." Snape struggled with getting the words out. Lily began to advance. "You, you, arse! You're happy that they died! Severus Marilyn Snape I refuse to believe you!" Lily was nearly up to Snape's overlarge nose, with the Slytherin at the edge of the path, shaking slightly. "You _are _a death eater in training!" Lily screamed the last proclamation in Snape's face and then turned and stalked off. Remus looked after the slowly retreating red-head, and made to follow her, but stopped when she seized the sword on her back and brought it down on a boulder, slicing it clean in two.

Snape remained where he was, watching as Lily left him behind.

…

The near instantaneous change from semi-difficult trek across flying mountains to heart ponding battle would seem to be a rather shaky transition, unless handled by a truly talented writer, or being dipped in with a heavy dose of self-awareness. However, the fact that the trio of wizards (or two wizards and a witch) had such little time to react that it would be fairly appropriate to move to this scene.

When we left our trapped hero's, and heroine, they were _not _surrounded by wasps, and they certainly _not _standing in a circle back to back, but as we return, they, in fact, are surrounded by wasps, _and _standing in a circle, back to back. That Snape was slight excluded from the group was another thing entirely, but when one was rejoicing over the supposed deaths of two people that had tormented him for five years and one that had tried to get him killed, one could be forgiven on figuring out why they were being hated on, regardless of the fact that two of the nearest persons happened to be fairly good friends of said dead ones, and fairly decent too.

Severus took stock of the situation as quickly as five years of sleeping in the Slytherin common room could allow him to. They were surrounded from all sides, but the aerial targets weren't making any hostile moves. Lily and Lupin had both drawn weapons, a sword and a gun, respectively, and Severus was left with a long staff. Why no one had pulled their wands was understandable, as currently no one knew where the wands were. So instead, they were using their preselected weapons. And they weren't happy about it.

"Well, does anyone have any ideas?" Severus self-consciously twirled his staff. He really didn't like this setup. For one, Lily wanted to kill him for liking that fact that his bloody tormentors of five years were dead, and Lupin was less then helpful, but probably had himself under control. _'Okay, first things first, perimeter.' _Severus selected the thickest concentration of flying creatures, and cast a shield charm.

"_Protego." _

Then something weird happened (you know, other than the fact that they're wizards in a computer).

When Severus cast the charm, he had expected some sort of then, invisible shield to spring up in front of them. Instead, the ivory staff hummed with an ethereal noise, the entangled tip glowed white, and an enormous shield enveloped Him, and the very shocked figures of Lupin and Lily.

Severus took a moment from analyzing the situation to simply stare at the long staff in his hand. Long and white, it was fairly plain, with the head being an ornate arrangement of thin roots, interwoven together. It was, in short, a very good magical prop, but one that should not have had any effect on his magic like a wand would. So why it worked here was a myste… oh wait, magic, yeah, forgot about that. It's always like this.

Severus decided then and there that, if whatever was surrounding them moved, he would get to the bottom of whatever was going on here. And just like that, the sensation of being thrown into boiling hot water, having said water turn ice cold in an instant, and finally having gravity reassert itself in the least spectacular manner ever, Severus suddenly found himself face down in a well-lit, circular room, populated with three relatively slender tubes, one of which he had fallen out of, and the other two currently occupied by Lily and Lupin.

Severus twitched his hand. Said hand felt cold and prickled at his movement, as though it had fallen asleep and blood hadn't quite circulated to it yet. The rest of his body felt the same way, but Severus could tolerate it, at least until he needed to leave. Then a muggle boy came down from a ladder, walked over and nudged Lupin. Severus brought his wand out of his pocket (so that was where it had been.) and pointed it as well as he could. _"Stupefy." _

The blond muggle convulsed, gave a whimper, and collapsed.

Severus pocketed his wand, and before either of the other two wizards could comment, loudly said "Well, he would have found us here. He would have started asking awkward questions." Lily just gaped at him, then turned around and started for what looked like an elevator. Lupin looked around a little, obviously wanting to figure out where they were, and Severus quickly realized that he had to be the one to carry the muggle. Sighing with annoyance at the fact that he wasn't getting any help for having done something for the group, he picked up the scrawny boy and slung him over his shoulder.

The elevator ride only lasted a minute, but it really acted to encapsulate the new status quo. Severus stood to one side, the stunned muggle lumped on his back. Lily stood on the other side, determinedly looking anywhere but at Severus. Lupin stood, dejectedly, in between the two. Severus could tell he was mourning. He had seen the same look on his mother's face when Tobias Snape had been lowered into his grave, dead from a knife in his back.

The doors opened with a pneumatic hiss. As the three walked out, Lily quietly said, "Well, we're in a factory. I say we get out." Severus nodded, though Lupin remained still, standing in the elevator, before finally starting behind them, as if he finally realized that they had reached the surface. Severus sneered away from them. After all the things that Potter and Black had done to him, he had every right to be happy that they would never be anywhere near him again.

'_Or near Lily either.' _Severus cast a furtive glance at his longtime friend. He hadn't been so stupid as to not notice that Potter seemed to have his fancy for her, but would rather have ignored it. If only he could convince her that what he had said was an accident…

Severus stepped onto a long bridge and out into the blinding light. The sun sat hot and strong in the sky, casting long shadows and inky blackness where it could not reach. But when his eyes finally adjusted to the glare, Severus was met with a simple dilemma. Three people, muggles, were lined up at the far end of the bridge, fists raised. Severus lowered the unconscious boy and drew his wand.

This was turning into a very interesting night.

**A/N: Yeah, I do trailing authors notes too. I like to. For clarification, I will update with exception regularity, but a lot of my time will be devoted to researching different ideas and incorporating them into my story. Soon, until next time, Hasta la proxima.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Some Introductions, Finally!**

**A/N: Tada, a new chapter. I'm glad that I'm getting some attention, but I think I might need to reword the summary. I just have this feeling that it's not conducive to getting readers. But the first chapter's pretty good, so maybe I need more fights like that.**

**In that case, here's Odd, getting the snot beaten out of him (not really).**

Odd Della Robbia wasn't a complicated person. In fact, he was pretty sure that he was the least complicated person on team Lyoko. He never needed much of a plan, always was ready to charge in and get the job done, and was usually able to come up with some way to do something that no one had thought of.

Thus, when faced with three supposedly unarmed people, one of which had his friend slung over his shoulder, walking out of the factory, Odd fed this through his processor and got this as a reply: _Hostile people, remove. _And with that, Odd doubled forward, screamed like a banshee, and charged.

"!"

The three exiting the factory exchanged looks. Finally, one slipped his hand onto his pocket, drew some sort of stick, and with a rather impetuous flick of the wrist, made things _way_ more complicated.

"!"

Odd dangled from midair, suddenly hoisted by his ankles into the sky. That, to put it mildly, was a surprise. Never, not once, had any of Xana's (deliberate) attacks rendered him incapacitated in such a humorous way. Sure, he'd been turned into a statue once, been fused with Kiwi by accident, and had even swapped bodies with Yumi when he was being dematerialized, but never hung upside down.

Fortunately, as his current position had left facing away from the three probably Xana-fied teens, when Yumi and Ulrich charged past, Ulrich unintentionally brushed past him and turned him around. The three people quickly sprang into motion; the far left one that had slung Jeremy over his shoulder dropped him, lifted the stick and started shouting. A laser burst shot out of his hand, missing Ulrich by inches and nearing getting Odd. Ulrich retaliated with a sharp series of blows to black-hairs abdomen, driving the wind from him.

Yumi, meanwhile, was circling the other two, a tall blond boy at least sixteen and a slightly smaller red head with green eyes that almost – no, wait - perfectly matched Ulrich's particular shade of green. They had also taken out sticks (short staves, wands?) and were holding them threatening at her. "We don't want to hurt you, and we personally think that Severus deserves to be beaten within an inch of his life, but this isn't the time for that."

"You call that not wanting to hurt us?" Yumi gestured at Jeremy, while Blondie amended Green-eyes statement to 'you want him beaten within an inch of his life'. "We now that you don't have any compunctions with hurting people Xana." Yumi then took three rapid steps forward and socked Green-eyes in the jaw.

"Lily!" both Blondie and Black-hair shouted as Green-eyes went down. Black-hair then turned his stick-stave-wand thing at Yumi, only for Ulrich to go for the cheap shot and knock him out cold too. Faced with two highly teenagers trained in _pencak_ _silat_, the premier fighting style of Japanese, he should never have stood a chance. Instead, he threw a handful of fire at his feet, using the sudden appearance of fire to grab Green-eyes and vanish with a crack. Odd hardly had time to wonder how many tricks these guys had up their sleeves before Ulrich pointed behind him and shouted, "Get them!" A moment later, he and Yumi raced back across the bridge, and Odd was left with two unconscious teenagers.

* * *

><p>Yumi ran as flat footed, but her thoughts ran faster. The pair that had escaped them, the blond and Lily, had left the unconscious kid with the hook nose behind. This wasn't normal behavior for those under Xana's thrall. Usually they acted and reacted as a pack, moving in tandem and leaving little opening for her and the Lyoko warriors to fight. But Xana had been shut down for about six months, so he might have been just a little out of it. Maybe.<p>

As for everything that they were doing, Yumi could pretty much explain all of it from past experience. The light show was clearly lasers, probably caused by the sticks they had being a sort of laser gun. The fire was certainly gasoline, though that seemed a little too convenient. Teleportation was also a factor, but it only looked like the thralls were capable of short distance teleportation. One thing stood out though; When the blond spoke, he hadn't sounded like he was being controlled. He sounded normal.

Regardless, Yumi was catching fast on the tall blond. He had stopped to try and pull something out of his pocket. Yumi closed the final ten feet in a flash and lunged, tackling the fleeing boy, knocking a transparent blanket out of his hands. Yumi looped her arms over his neck and her leg across his, locking any movement. Ulrich caught up, stooped to grab the stick-laser-gun and direct it at the immobilized blond. "Now then, let's see if we can't find some rope."

The blond continued to struggle, but Yumi wouldn't be moved. Ulrich crouched down and said, "Like it or not Xana, you'll not going any yet. We will…" Ulrich trailed off, then grabbed the boy by the cheeks. "Let him go Yumi, and look at his eyes."

Yumi complied, untangling herself from the blond and turning him to face her, curious. The eye of Xana, a circle with a single dot in inside it and four outcrops, one on top and three equal distant from each other on the bottom. But when the blond looked up at her, all that was in his eyes was a trace of fear that was overruled by determination. Yumi groaned in annoyance. They weren't being controlled by Xana, which meant that they had just attacked three innocent-

Wait a minute! What were all those lights?

The blond, perhaps hoping that he could get away while the pair seemed lost in thought, was promptly forced back onto the ground by Yumi's boot. "Talk, and maybe you can leave."

The blond seemed put out, but started to speak anyway. "My name is Remus John Lupin. I've no idea wants going on, or where I am. Can we just leave, please. I want to…" the blond, Remus, trailed off for some reason unknown to Yumi. Yumi just sighed, bent over, and pulled him to his feet. "Okay, maybe we can let you go, but only after you explain what those flashy lights were."

Remus stiffened. "I could show you right now if you want." Yumi felt something poke her stomach, followed by Remus yelling in her face. _"Stupefy." _Red light erupted in the small gap between the pair and Yumi staggered back. She had felt like she'd been kicked in the gut. So she retaliated in kind, swinging her leg into Remus's head. Remus met the ground with a thud.

"So it looks like we'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Ulrich grabbed Remus and pitched him onto his shoulders, as Yumi did the same with Lily. "How's you're good cop persona? Still need work?"

"Nope, I'm just out of practice. How's your bad cop?"

"Better hurry up, otherwise I'll be inclined to practice some kick boxing on your arm." Ulrich looked like he only just held back a smirk at Yumi's raised eyebrows. "Well, what can I say, I'm out of practice too."

Yumi adjust the unconscious girl on her shoulders and started towards the factory, Ulrich trailing behind. The walk back would have only taken about five minutes, seeing as they had managed to catch Remus and Lily after only two minutes of chasing. Before they knew it, the familiar bridge had come back into view, complete with iron trusses and unconscious people.

"About time you got here." Odd glared from the upside-down position he was in, trying look threatening. The appearance was undermined by the fact Odd was as red as an apple. "Don't you care about the raging headache I'm going to have for the next few hours?"

"Frankly Odd, no. But thanks for keeping an eye on the prisoners for us." Ulrich slapped Odd on the back, and then tried to figure out how to get his friend and roommate back on the ground. After about thirty seconds of heavy thought, Ulrich just shrugged his shoulders and went over to revive Jeremy.

"Bwuh happened." Jeremy came to in the expected way, fairly disoriented and with a massive headache. "And why is Odd upside down? And floating?"

"Well, we have no idea and were hoping you could figure that out for us," Yumi said. "So hop to it Einstein." She and Ulrich looped their hands under Jeremy's arms and brought him back to his feet. The little genius walked over, stared at the floating Odd for thirty seconds, then turned and said, "Well, I got nothing."

"Hey, if no one is going to ask the guy that's suspended in midair if he knows, how to get down, I could just ask myself." Odd pointed at the still unconscious hook nosed kid. "That stick thing did it. He pointed it at me and flicked it up. Try that."

Ulrich scrounged out the stick that the hook nosed boy had held (Yumi really wanted to know his name) and pointed it at Odd and give it a flick. A second later, Odd hit the ground with a coconut like thud. Yumi could practically see him mentally pleading _'not the hair, not the hair.' _to no avail, falling unceremoniously on his back and, consequently, on his hair. "Well, I hope you happy now. You just had to go and ruin my hair." Odd sat back up, the reddened face already fading. "Well, looks like we've got a tower to deactivate." Odd smiled at his (rather poor) wit, but Jeremy frowned.

"You mean that these guys are being controlled by Xana?" Jeremy shared a confused look with Odd, but Yumi jumped in. "No, they didn't have the eye of Xana. In fact, the only odd thing was that they had you unconscious, and those lights."

"There weren't any tower active on Lyoko, so they might have been acting of their own volition." Jeremy scratched at his chin, oblivious to Odd's shock. Yumi grabbed Remus's unconscious form, and made to move him into the factory.

Things were going to get interesting.

* * *

><p>"Name?"<p>

"Whaaah's going on?"

"Name please."

"Ere, Severus Snape."

Yumi threw a confused look at Jeremy, but he shrugged and just wrote it down. The two of them were sitting outside the room that the interrogation was taking place in, with Odd and Ulrich trying to figure out what the three arrivals were doing here.

"Where do you live?"

"…Cokeworth, England."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Severus spat out. Yumi was getting the impression that he was going to be worse than his two companions. Lily had either been completely silent or insulted all of them rather creatively. Remus on the other hand had been moderately cooperative, up until Ulrich had asked him if he had come with anyone other than Lily and Severus. At that point Remus had completely locked up and was incapable of answering any other questions. Both currently were sitting down opposite to Yumi and Jeremy, Remus still frozen, Lily trying to coax her friend out of the stupor.

"What year is it?"

"Well, the stupid muggle can't tell time, who knew?"

Lily glared at the door, making _Yumi _flinch. Seriously, it was on thing to have attacked innocent people, but to have something like this was just mind-blowing.

"Please answer the question."

"1975. What year do you think it is?"

"2006, but that's beside the point. Do you or do you not believe in magic?"

"…"

"Please answer the question."

"No, I don't."

"Really, because your friends seemed rather adamant that it existed."

"My friends are bloody crazy. Where am I?" Straining noise could be heard from inside the room, a mark of Severus's attempt at escaping. Yumi glanced at Lily and Remus again. The confusing thing was that when they had woken up, both had been convinced that they were in the United Kingdoms, that they were magicians, and that they were still speaking English, even though Yumi had insisted furiously that _they _were speaking _French._ Whatever was going on had affected their minds.

"Where do you think you are?"

"What do you care? Let me go!"

"No."

"…"

_Crack!_

Yumi jumped to her feet as Severus appeared out of thin air. He reacted by _Crack_ing out of existence and appearing next to Remus and Lily, quickly looping his arm under Remus's. The boy just sagged, nearly dragging Severus with him. Ulrich and Odd burst out of the room, fists raised and ready to fight. Lily beat to the punch though.

_Slap!_

Severus staggered, the weight of Remus causing him to over balance and land on his tail. "What the bloody-." Severus was caught off guard by Lily's wand now on his throat. "Severus, shut. Up. And listen."

And Lily sat back down.

Severus stared at Lily, trying to wrap his head around what she had just said. Jeremy and Yumi shared a glance, but decided that it was time to share the findings. But certain things can always change. And right now, it was time for a change. So rather conveniently, Yumi's cell rang. And things were already starting to happen.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, this was a hard chapter to write. I mean it, really. This was hard for me. Two thousand words! I mean, I used to be able to bang out nearly five thousand in two days, but hardly half that in nine. I must be slipping.**

**I'm sorry if this is coming out late for you. I'm just having some writers block. So to compensate, I'll toss a nice spoiler for a later chapter in. Here you go!**

Remus snapped his cell phone shut and started out of the building. He was still safe for now, with the full moon nearly a week away. Jeremy had said that he should be able to finish the dimensional jump program any day now, and then reconfigure the retrieval programs to pull Sirius and James out of Xana's clutches. He shouldn't need to reveal anything to Lily and Jeremy or his friends if it all went to plan. But so engrossed by his hopes and fears that Remus was, he never saw the thick black mist ooze out of the electrical socket behind him.

Remus registered the attack only as a headache, before it suddenly became something far worse. The pain and agony of limb growth was unmistakable and Remus's last conscious thought was a silent plead to learn that he was dreaming. But he was having a waking nightmare instead.

The transformation complete, Xana's newest monster rose to its paws, black eyes taking in the world around it. The Werewolf threw its head back, and howled for blood.

**See you next week! ;-)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Reintroducing the world**

**A/N: Cue lights.**

**Enter cast.**

**Raise curtain.**

**And…**

**From the top; take two.**

* * *

><p>Lily Rose Evans had once thought that being told 'you're a witch but that's okay' had been the strangest thing she had ever heard (though, Severus had at the time, been the strangest <em>person <em>she had ever seen, so it hadn't really mattered that he was saying bizarre stuff). After that, strange had become her constant companion as a mud…muggle-born in the magical world. Anywhere from wand waving and saying a silly word to using plants she didn't know existed to create odd elixirs book ended a wondrous experience, and trying to dodge the occasional prank with Sev and sometimes Regulus Black had been interspersed by lovely sessions of study and gossip in Gryffindor tower.

Then it all went down the Lou.

The problems with Sev had on whole been present in some form or another before Hogwarts, with some of the lesser details filled in after a long tenure in Slytherin house. The snippiness and suspicion were a side effect of living with a drunkard father that had a propensity to attack anything that stood out as abnormal. Superiority was almost a necessity to keep Severus from the ledge. The fascination with the dark arts had sprung up from a combination of the former and a simple love for knowledge. Fitting in with the local cliques were, unfortunately, the fault of both those idiot gits, Lily's common euphuism for the Marauders, and those jerks, the junior deatheater brigade.

Slowly, isolated from his only friend, surrounded and almost certainly bullied by blood bigots, ensnared by his own ploys for survival in a hard house, Severus started to change. A comment there, a snide word here, Lily could almost _plot_ _points _to the events leading up to tonight. But what had really done it in had to be, unquestionably, been the Marauders. The Marauders had formed from four friends that hadn't had anything in common, with the sole purpose of tormenting anyone that didn't meet a certain standard of being. I.E. not being a Slytherin. Their actions had gotten so bad that at one point Lily had tried to call them out, but had only managed to secure a minor detention for 'disturbing the peace'. She hated them.

It had only gotten worse from there. More and more of those idiot gits pranks had begun to center around Sev, ostensibly because he was the worst of the worst, actually because he was so close to Lily. James and Sirius began tormenting him in the halls, dueling whenever they could or felt like it, and generally being jerks to Severus. It had all accumulated today though, with one word and a duel on Hogwarts tallest tower. Lily had been horrified when Nancy Torres told her that the idiot gits had left at nearly midnight and had torn after them, only to find that they had cast some sort of darkness spell and were hiding from her. When she had seen Severus hiding there, having _attacked _her, it…it…

Then everything promptly stopped making sense (for a magical school anyway) as she and nearly everyone there started to disappear into a swirling storm of sapphire clouds that sprang out of nowhere and the next thing she knew was that she was standing, disoriented, on a massive, flying mountain looking for all the world to see like the worlds most confused knight. Not too long after that, she Severus and Lupin had been surrounded by giant flying bugs that literally came out of nowhere. Seriously, one minute nothing, the next minute BUGS!

Even stranger events came to pass when the haphazard trio suddenly went from whole and solid to none-existent, and back again, before falling out of tubes and apparently knocking out a blond kid (a muggle named Jeremy). So Sev, whom had been the one to knock Jeremy, had been tasked with carrying him _without_ _magic _to the exit of the factory they had wound up in. The minutes after that though were little more than a blur, as the Chinese girl, Yumi, had apologized profusely. Who knew you could lose your memory from something as simple as a blow to the head?

Not too long after she woke up, Lily had been taken into a room with to other boys who introduced themselves as Odd Della Robbia and Ulrich Stern. Upon finally making sure they weren't playing with her or joking about their names, Lily decided the best course of action would be to tell the pair absolutely nothing and hope that at least some from the ministry would be able to track them down and obliviate them. After that thoughanother teen, Jeremy, came back in to tell her that she had been simultaneously thrown forward in time and into a different universe. While his explanation lacked a lot of detail, she could reason that it wasn't all that impossible.

Magic. God she loved/hated it.

So once the interrogators had decided that they couldn't get her to tell them anything, they also casually informed her that she was speaking perfect French _even though she didn't know a word of French._ Confusion from language dissonance aside, Lily was more intent on making sure that Sev and Lupin were okay then playing twenty questions, and proceeded to mildly reprimand the French boys before being unceremoniously removed from the room and handed a bar of soap. _"For your mouth"_-said Odd.

How dare him!

Outside the room, Lupin and Severus had been callously laid against a wall. Before Lily could start to try to shake them awake, Lupin was frog marched into the room to begin the process of information extraction again. Lily spent some time trying to wake Severus, but after trying and failing to shake him conscious, Lily had to admit defeat. Severus was a heavy sleeper and rarely could she get a raise from him if she didn't try slapping him. Severus may have been an arse, but that didn't mean she had to be rude to him as well.

Not that she wouldn't make him regret what he had done. Severus would need to give an arm and a leg to get back in her good graces and that would be if she was feeling generous.

Lupin took his time, explaining everything in the great, exacting detail he was famous for, slowly getting to the point that he, Lily and Severus were magical, placing numerous qualifiers, and generally explaining things far better than the author could.(A/N: I love hanging lampshades.)

Until Ulrich had asked about James, Sirius and Regulus. Lily's opinion of the Idiot gits notwithstanding, she had actually liked Regulus a bit. He had a level head and wasn't nearly as prone to slipping into blood-bigot mode as the rest of Slytherin house. She could even deal with him when he did, primarily because all they were and only would ever be study-buddies. The fact that he had vanished into the 'Digital Sea' as Jeremy had put it, had stung.

While the bros. cop went at Lupin, Jeremy explained why he believed that she and company had arrived in their universe and not in the future as she expected was because of "Hypothetical Temporal Unmooring" whatever that was. Basically, their world had spat them out, and unable to return for the time they had been dumped into an alternate universe, slightly more advanced then here native 1975. Word of Jeremy said that the internet acted as, wait for it, a _NET. _Whatever an Internet was.

Eventually Odd and Ulrich let the near catatonic Lupin out of the room, and took Severus in. Lily smirked, knowing it would be awhile before they could wake him up. Lupin seemed shell shocked, but gave something approaching a smile when Lily patted him on the back. Presently, Severus awoke.

"Name?"

"Whaaah's going on?"

"Name please."

Lily resisted the urge to groan. Why oh why Sev.

"Ere, Severus Snape."

"Where do you live?"

"…Cokeworth, England."

"Really?"

Really?

"Yes, really," Severus growled. Semantics, Lily thought. All Slytherin's were prone to them.

"Well, the stupid muggle can't tell time, who knew?"

Lily eyed the door, and then tuned out the conversation in favor of shaking Lupin to health.

Her actions were in vane as Severus suddenly apparated out of the room, shocking Yumi. Severus apparated again, close enough to Lily to see his face screw up in pain from apparating twice in rapid succession. He grabbed Lupin from under the arms, but the agony of essentially being magically run over in short order and Lupin's dead weight dragged him almost to his knees. The door burst open across the small hall she, Yumi and everyone else was in burst outward, Ulrich and Odd coming out just spoiling for a fight. Lily, knowing what Severus would do though, beat them to the punch.

_Slap! _"What the bloody-".

Lily pulled out her wand and pressed it to Severus's neck. She was not in the mood for this. "Severus, shut. Up. And listen." Lily pocketed her wand and sat back down, settling Lupin with her. The blond seemed to be coming back alive in her care, obviously blinking back tears and sending Lily a forced smile.

"Thanks."

Lily was cut off by a strange jingle, sounding a little like an alarm clock under a blanket. Yumi pulled something out of her jeans and flipped a boxy object open. Her eyes widened comically at what she saw on the screen. "It's Aelita." She hissed. "She and William are awake!"

* * *

><p>"So, let me get this right."<p>

"For the fifth time tonig... today."

"We are in a different dimension."

Sigh. "You do this Lupin."

"But Lily-"

"But nothing, I don't feel like talking to him."

"He asked everyone else."

Lily nearly gave Lupin the evil eye, but caught herself with the thought that she could seriously hurt his chances at a full emotional recovery. He needed complete friendship now, and the only people that could reliably connect with him were her and Severus. So only she could be counted on to help him. So she contented herself to watch the rain water and sewage and the occasional rat race by in the crazy extensive sewers under Paris. The conglomerated group had set out from the massive Renault factory that the whole of a massive super computer and attending laboratory. Odd was currently acted as the trios guide, pointing out how they had found the factory, figured out the fastest and safest way to it were the surprisingly cramped sewers (at least by Parisian standards) and filling them in on smaller tidbits on the history of Lyoko, apparently created by one Franz Hopper. The fact that the trio was currently consisting of some of the smartest students in Hogwarts history made memorizing the information he had bombarded them with easy enough.

Ahead of them, Odd was now working with Ulrich to lever clear a sewer cover that they used to enter and exit the sewers at will. A cry of success suddenly echoed now the narrow chute the two shared, followed by a "Shout harder Odd, I don't think Jim heard you up there," and a "Oh well, you can thank me later for saving you from muscle tears later." Ulrich lowered himself down the chute to just below the sewer roof. "So, you wizards have ladders were you come from, or do you just levitate up everywhere?"

Severus sneered.

Lily groaned. _'Here we go again.'_

"Of course we levitate. It's the first thing that we learn how to do in Slytherin house." Snape then took hold of the ladder and continued his tirade. "However, I don't feel that it would be prudent to show you, as I have no intention to waste my energies on show boating."

Ulrich looked Severus right in the eye from above and said, "So I can take as that no."

Everyone stifled a laugh at Severus's sudden shutdown, save the young wizard himself who simply made a rude gesture. Ulrich shrugged and started to climb. He was quickly followed by Sev, then Lupin. Lily climbed back to the surface after them, and after her were Yumi and finally Jeremy, who worked with Yumi to replace the manhole cover.

The septet had emerged in shady, exquisite woods that looked rather deep, but seemed to give way to a nearby courtyard. Lily strangled a yawn in her throat, the light leaking through the canopy only reminding her body how late she thought it was. She had gone from eleven o'clock at night to three thirty in the afternoon. Jeremy had mentioned that she would have to stay awake until nine to keep her body from falling into bad habits of exhaustion midday.

Ulrich now took them out of the woods, near a large Olympic running track that was attached to a four story building dotted with windows at regular intervals. He pointed to the building. "Pool house, change rooms and lifting rooms. Basically it's your all-purpose gym." He led them around the building, and pointed at another, near identical structure. "Dorms and boarding room. It's where you're going to sleep for the time being. Second floors the boys, third's for girls. The first-."

"Belongs to everyone that doesn't qualify to the first two." Odd broke in. Yumi helpfully walloped her friend.

"As I was saying," Ulrich continued, "The first floor in supply's, laundry, the showers, the infirmary and overflow classrooms. We're going to the infirmary."

Severus looked over himself and Lily. That Remus was not included was not lost on Lily. "We're healthy, you know. Why are you taking us to the infirmary?" He punctuated this last question with a slight sneer, as if to question Ulrich's and by extent Jeremy's judgment.

Ulrich grimaced a little, though less at the tone and more at the question. "Our friends, Aelita and William were hurt earlier today. We going to make sure that they're okay." Sev's angry sneer was also not lost on Lily.

Yumi seemed to take charge now, or maybe she was just anxious to help her friends enough that she too lead ahead of Ulrich. The continuous switching of authority implied that Jeremy, Odd, Yumi and Ulrich either regularly delegated different tasks to each other or had to true system of control, but just went with the flow of all things group wise. It wasn't all that unlike the Idiot Gits really. Sometimes Potter would be controlling Black, Lupin would take charge, or Peter would chime in with a funny little joke and bring attention to himself.

Lily's internal musing on the nature of the command structure of the self-proclaimed Lyoko warriors was cut by the infirmary. Walking in, she noticed that it seemed just a little crowded, with herself included, a total of ten people, Yumi obscured by a curtain in front of a bed. Two girls were on another bed, the first helpfully stretching out the seconds left arm, saying something about getting her blood circulating again. Most striking though was the second girl's hair, which was a completely natural pink.

"Sissi, you can stop that." The pinkette pulled her arm out of the grasp of Sissi, though it trumped a little uselessly to her side. She stood and smiled at the new arrivals. "So you're the ones William was talking about. Nice to meet you. I'm Aelita."

Severus, Lupin, and Lily all shared looks. Lily shrugged. "I'm Lily Evans, this is Remus Lupin and Severus Snape. Nice to meet you too Aelita."

"Who's that?" came an eerily familiar voice. A tall young man, looking a little like James Potter pulled back the curtain that had obscured a section of the room. Yumi had been out of sight behind it, along with… Regulus!

Lily barely wasted a moment tackling the only other Slytherin she liked with Severus. "Oh God Regulus we thought you were dead." The rest of her and Severus's speech dribbled off into unintelligible babbling as they hugged there supposedly dead friend.

"Gah, ugh, help, Help." Regulus struggled against their arms, only managing to get a clear breath when the ecstatic magicians were pulled off him by Odd and Ulrich. He tried to bring himself to his feet, but the fatigue from the earlier incident and the sudden attack left him needing the potterish looking boy to pull him up. "(huff) Who's (huff) Regulus? I'm (huff) Will Dunbar." William managed to finally catch his breath and stand on his own. The helper boy looked at Sissi for a queue on what to do.

Jeremy frowned and asked, "Sissi, we're going to need you to take David outside for a moment. You know, computer stuff." Sissi looked put out for a moment, but nodded anyway and stood and walked, taking her boyfriend David with her. For his part, David gave a royal wave from the doorway and stepped out cheerfully enough.

Lily looked over William quickly. He had the same high-noble chin that he and Black did, same casual handsomeness, similar facial expressions even. But his height was all wrong, and he seemed, how she would put this, a little more filled out then Reg. So in conclusion- not Regulus Black. "Um, sorry about the confusion man. Didn't know."

William's face twitched. "Never mind, it's not your fault." He gave a light smile. I'm just not used to being tackled by guys. Girls on the other hand…" Any further potential flirtation was headed off by Lily Evans's patented Glare of DOOOOOM. William turned to Jeremy, words rushing out to avoid decimation. "So Jeremy, why were me and Aelita out for so long?"

"Huh." Jeremy looked surprised at being included in an otherwise unrelated conversation. "Oh, well, you and Aelita were most strongly affected," He stopped to inspect his laptop, "Because you two are the most strongly linked to Lyoko."

Beat.

"What?"

Jeremy blushed at the evident confusion his words had created. "The super-computer more or less generated a massive Return to the Past, which continuously sent us right to the moment we were in. Because of the time you spent on Lyoko, Aelita actively for one year and you under Xana's thrall for nine months, you and Aelita were the last to awaken. In contrast, I was almost never on Lyoko, and Odd Ulrich and Yumi were alternating for roughly equal periods. Thus, you and Aelita were unconscious for the longest period of time." Jeremy sent his arms together and looked at the now slightly less bewildered room.

Odd finally chimed in, "This is why we call him Einstein. You can't tell if it's French or German he's speaking." Ulrich rolled his eyes as Yumi and Aelita chuckled, Yumi at the joke, Aelita at Jeremy. The wizards just stared.

When the laughter finally died off, Aelita looked at Jeremy. It wasn't an exactly hostile look, it was more a 'the sight of you pains me' look. Kind of like how Lily was looking at Sev right now. "So, is Xana back? Is it really back?" The words hung heavily in the air, everyone, even the magicians that didn't quite understand what Xana was, leaned in to hear Jeremy's answer. Jeremy adjusted his glasses, the glare of the sun covering his eyes. "Yes, Xana has returned."

Silence reigned for a moment. Than…

"Let's get to work then." Yumi said.

* * *

><p>The ever expanding darkness enveloped James Potter. James looked left, right, up, down and straight ahead, but not backwards. He didn't need to look back to know that there was darkness there to. So really, the only thing that was keeping him from going nuts was the near constant voice of one Sirius Black, also known as Padfoot. Right now though, Padfoot was starting to get on his nerves.<p>

"I mean, come on, how could you just let Snivallus hurt Lily like that. Come one Prongs! She is your girlfriend, practically. And you didn't protect her!"

"All right already, I get it Padfoot, I'm a bad boyfriend. Can you now just SHUT UP!" James barely kept himself from seizing his friend and giving him a sound thrashing.

"Okay, okay, I get it." Sirius sounded, for a moment like he was repentant. "I just want out of here." The fear and ache in his voice was evidence enough for James not hit his brother. "So you got any ideas."

"No."

"Great."

Beat.

"HELP!"

James jumped from his friends voice, surprised by the sudden noise. After a moment, he realized his friend reasoning and raised his voice as well, crying out to the darkness for there salvation. Their shouting went unheard for a moment until.

"CRASH BANG FWOOSH Sonova- STAMP STAMP STAMP."

James and Sirius exchange unseen perplexed looks. After a moment though, Padfoot raised his voice. "Excuse me." For a moment there was silence.

"What is it? What are you doing here?" A grandiose, booming voice echoed in the air. Sirius paused and said "Who is this."

"Who am I, well who am I, I'm, wait I got it, I'M GOD!" The voice declared. James rolled his eyes.

"If your god, then what am I thinking?" James called up. The voice chuckled at the tone.

"Well, I've only now gotten used to being a god, so let me see. Myu myu my." James and Sirius stared at the invisible voice. "The sound effects help with the appearance the voice commented. Hum." The voice's 'hum' reverberated through-out the space. After a moment the unseen figure completed its contemplation and said: "You Sirius Artemis Black, are thinking of a motorcycle, and your desperate wish to own one." A quiet gasp rose at the proclamation. "And you James Charlus Potter, want to see one Lily Rose Evans in a bikini."

Now Sirius laughed at his friends expense. James rolled his eyes again, only slightly convinced. "Okay, if you're a god-."

A light went on in front of James and Sirius, unveiling their most deepest desires. "I could give this to you both, and more." The god proclaimed this with a hint of smugness, while both teenagers raced to the light, drooling slightly over the gifts. "But," the god said, and it was a specific but, "I will require something of yours."

Sirius and James now properly shared looks. "Um, what?" James asked.

The light went out.

"YOUR SOULS!" The God roared.

* * *

><p>Somewhere in the digital sea, a person stirred, a stood up.<p>

"Hello? Is anybody out there!?" Regulus Black shouted.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Six months. I am so, so sorry. Still I'mmmm baaack!**


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